CHAPTER 1. OPCAT AND THE MANDATE OF THE NPM 1.1.Requirements of the OPCAT The main objective of the OPCAT1 is to establish a system of regular visits undertaken by independent international and national bodies to places of detention2 in order to prevent torture. The OPCAT emphasizes the importance of a constructive dialogue, and specifies that not an approach based on reaction, but a preventive approach shall be applied to the regulated relations. The innovativeness of the OPCAT also appears in envisaging no new rights or restoration of infringed rights but the prevention of the violation of the existing standard - the right to not be subjected to torture. The principle idea of the mentioned document is to establish, as an effective tool for the prevention of torture, a system of independent and regular visits to be carried out with the purpose of monitoring the detention conditions and treatment of persons kept in places of detention. In accordance with the OPCAT, international and national bodies with a torture prevention mandate – the Subcommittee and NPMs – are set up. The Subcommittee established at the international level, being a subcommittee of the UN Committee against Torture, is a new generation treaty body of the UN. Pursuant to Article 17 of the OPCAT, each State Party shall maintain, designate or establish, at the latest one year after its entry into force or of its ratification or accession, one or several independent national preventive mechanisms for the prevention of torture at the domestic level. The NPM’s mandate consists of at the very least the following: - to regularly examine the treatment of the persons deprived of their liberty in places of detention; - to make recommendations to the relevant authorities with the aim of improving the treatment and the conditions of the persons deprived of their liberty and to prevent torture, taking into consideration the relevant norms of the United Nations; 1 Which was adopted with the UN General Assembly Resolution No 57/199 of 18 December 2002, and entered into force after 20 States ratified it on 22 June 2006. 2 Pursuant to Para 2 of Article 4 of the OPCAT, for the purposes of the present Protocol, deprivation of liberty means any form of detention or imprisonment or the placement of a person in a public or private custodial setting which that person is not permitted to leave at will by order of any judicial, administrative or other authority. 7